online.wsj.com: BMW expects strong demand for its "i" series of electric cars in China, which the company expects to become the world's largest market for electric vehicles in five years despite big hurdles and slow uptake so far.
To help kick-start demand (and learning the lessons from the West), the German luxury auto maker on Wednesday said it would invest an undisclosed amount to set up 50 charging stations in Shanghai together with State Grid Shanghai Electric Vehicle Co., a unit of one of China's top two state-owned utility providers, and Expo Shanghai Group, a state-owned property company.
BMW joins other electric-car makers who face the problem of inadequate charging infrastructure, which makes electric cars a tough sell. In China, where privately owned parking spaces are few and bureaucratic hurdles many, car makers are finding the going even tougher.
Still, BMW is optimistic. Speaking at an event in Shanghai on Wednesday, Karsten Engel, chief executive for BMW's China operation, said BMW would sell a maximum of 1,000 i3 and i8 cars in the country this year. BMW i series will go on sale in China in September, but sales will be limited to around a dozen dealers in four cities due to a supply shortage and concerns over insufficient charging infrastructure.
Last year, BMW and its Chinese partner Brilliance China Automotive Holdings launched a for-China-only electric vehicle called Zinoro.
"We expect that the Chinese car market for electro-mobility will become the largest market for those cars" in five years, Mr. Engel said.
For this latest project, BMW's chargers will be sprinkled over a five-square-kilometer area near the former site of the 2010 Shanghai Expo and will provide charging service for BMW and other brands of electric cars. All 50 are expected to be in place by the end of next year.
Mr. Engel said the company hopes to work with utility providers on similar projects in other parts of Shanghai and China.
China has set for itself the ambitious goal of putting 500,000 plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by next year and five million by 2020. Plug-in hybrids are cars that can run on either gasoline or electricity.
Beijing hopes such cars will help battle pollution, curb rising oil dependence and give a boost to Chinese auto makers by encouraging them to pioneer such vehicles.
Shanghai recently announced plans to grant up to 3,000 free license plates to buyers of imported electric cars, a perk that could make electric vehicles more attractive to consumers. Mr. Engel said a rollout of such a policy to include other cities where securing license plates is difficult would be an "excellent" boon to BMW's electric-car plans in China.
To fuel these new energy vehicles, China had hoped to have 400,000 charging stations in place by next year, but work is behind schedule.
Prohibitive investment costs and low financial returns mean state utility providers have little incentive to build the public stations, said Andreas Graef, principal at consultancy A.T. Kearney's Shanghai office. The city of Shanghai, for example, only has few hundred public charging stations, said Mr. Graef.
China's largest power grid operator by sales said Tuesday it will invite private capital tobuild charging stations for electric vehicles. State Grid Corp. of China also will attempt to make electric-car charging cost-effective for consumers, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Rival Tesla Motors has unveiled separate plans to install home chargers as well as public chargers. It has already installed one set of public chargers in Beijing, and another is under construction there, with more to come in other cities, a spokeswoman said.
Tesla has plans to develop its own nationwide supercharger networks that would allow owners to make long-distance trips between major cities free of charge. It already has two in Shanghai, and another one will come online in Beijing in June, the company spokeswoman said.
BMW also is in talks with property developers like China Vanke Co. and real-estate projects such Wangjing Soho, an office and commercial property project in Beijing, regarding the installation of more charging pillars, the company said.
A spokeswoman for SAIC Motor Corp, GM's partner in China that also has manufactured electric cars, said it was in talks with utility providers in Shanghai regarding potential cooperation on charging infrastructure, but the company currently has no announcements to make, she said.
To help kick-start demand (and learning the lessons from the West), the German luxury auto maker on Wednesday said it would invest an undisclosed amount to set up 50 charging stations in Shanghai together with State Grid Shanghai Electric Vehicle Co., a unit of one of China's top two state-owned utility providers, and Expo Shanghai Group, a state-owned property company.
BMW joins other electric-car makers who face the problem of inadequate charging infrastructure, which makes electric cars a tough sell. In China, where privately owned parking spaces are few and bureaucratic hurdles many, car makers are finding the going even tougher.
Still, BMW is optimistic. Speaking at an event in Shanghai on Wednesday, Karsten Engel, chief executive for BMW's China operation, said BMW would sell a maximum of 1,000 i3 and i8 cars in the country this year. BMW i series will go on sale in China in September, but sales will be limited to around a dozen dealers in four cities due to a supply shortage and concerns over insufficient charging infrastructure.
Last year, BMW and its Chinese partner Brilliance China Automotive Holdings launched a for-China-only electric vehicle called Zinoro.
"We expect that the Chinese car market for electro-mobility will become the largest market for those cars" in five years, Mr. Engel said.
For this latest project, BMW's chargers will be sprinkled over a five-square-kilometer area near the former site of the 2010 Shanghai Expo and will provide charging service for BMW and other brands of electric cars. All 50 are expected to be in place by the end of next year.
Mr. Engel said the company hopes to work with utility providers on similar projects in other parts of Shanghai and China.
China has set for itself the ambitious goal of putting 500,000 plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by next year and five million by 2020. Plug-in hybrids are cars that can run on either gasoline or electricity.
Beijing hopes such cars will help battle pollution, curb rising oil dependence and give a boost to Chinese auto makers by encouraging them to pioneer such vehicles.
Shanghai recently announced plans to grant up to 3,000 free license plates to buyers of imported electric cars, a perk that could make electric vehicles more attractive to consumers. Mr. Engel said a rollout of such a policy to include other cities where securing license plates is difficult would be an "excellent" boon to BMW's electric-car plans in China.
To fuel these new energy vehicles, China had hoped to have 400,000 charging stations in place by next year, but work is behind schedule.
Prohibitive investment costs and low financial returns mean state utility providers have little incentive to build the public stations, said Andreas Graef, principal at consultancy A.T. Kearney's Shanghai office. The city of Shanghai, for example, only has few hundred public charging stations, said Mr. Graef.
China's largest power grid operator by sales said Tuesday it will invite private capital tobuild charging stations for electric vehicles. State Grid Corp. of China also will attempt to make electric-car charging cost-effective for consumers, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Rival Tesla Motors has unveiled separate plans to install home chargers as well as public chargers. It has already installed one set of public chargers in Beijing, and another is under construction there, with more to come in other cities, a spokeswoman said.
Tesla has plans to develop its own nationwide supercharger networks that would allow owners to make long-distance trips between major cities free of charge. It already has two in Shanghai, and another one will come online in Beijing in June, the company spokeswoman said.
BMW also is in talks with property developers like China Vanke Co. and real-estate projects such Wangjing Soho, an office and commercial property project in Beijing, regarding the installation of more charging pillars, the company said.
A spokeswoman for SAIC Motor Corp, GM's partner in China that also has manufactured electric cars, said it was in talks with utility providers in Shanghai regarding potential cooperation on charging infrastructure, but the company currently has no announcements to make, she said.
